Why I’m Pausing The Blog

Habits

Sep 2

We’re now over halfway through 2021, so it’s time to re-evaluate some of goals for the year. At the beginning of January I had eleven things I wanted to accomplish over the year for acting, coaching, writing, and some personal goals. Now that there’s only five months left in the year I can look at how many of those goals I’ve accomplished so far, what’s left on my to-do list, and whether I really want to finish them.

🎉🎉🎉 Four of the eleven goals I set in January 2021 have already been achieved! 🎉🎉🎉

Finish at least 12 audiobooks (already at 17!)
Upgrade my sound booth & equipment
Finish the first draft of a novel project (this project has since been scrapped, but I still get to count it)
Buy and move into a condo

My other seven goals and their progress are:

Sign with VO agents in other cities (already started submitting to Toronto agents)
Sign an on-camera agent (pending new demo material)
Write a blog post every two weeks (on-going)
Teach local workshops on organization for actors (pending)
Work with five clients in one-on-one sessions (pending)
Finish the first draft of a feature film screenplay (over 60% finished)
Read 15 books for fun (12/15 read with 2 in progress)

Today, I’m going to focus specifically on re-evaluating the blog post goal. With the exception of 3 posts, I’ve met my deadlines consistently throughout the year. I’d say that the goal itself was well structured and attainable in terms of my SMART goal system.

When I set the goal for myself of publishing a blog post every two weeks, I had several purposes in mind. The first was to build a library of content relevant to starting a career as an organization coach for actors. The second, which is more important to me, was to build a habit of writing often so I would stop being afraid of the writing process.

I would say that over the past couple months, these blog posts have helped reframe how I think about writing. But I’ve noticed that most of my writing energy was put into these posts rather than on the creative projects I really want to work on. I was adding “writer” to my identity, sure, but I wasn’t making any progress on the screenplays I’ve had rattling around inside my head for years. The natural conclusion is: “If I want to write my screenplays, I should get in the habit of writing them, not blog posts.”

As for the first purpose of these posts, to build a library of content for a future coaching career, I also realized that my motivation to focus on the blog (as well as the workshops and one-on-one sessions) was borne out of a fear of not having enough audiobook work, rather than a desire to start coaching right now. I do ultimately want to get into coaching, but I’m quite comfortable with that being a longer term goal.

So consider these goals from January to be struck from my list:

Write a blog post every two weeks
Teach local workshops on organization for actors
Work with five clients in one-on-one sessions

Bringing my total down to eight goals for 2021 with four already accomplished.

I’ll probably still write an occasional post when I feel particularly inspired, but I’ll no longer hold myself to a schedule. At least, not for the rest of this year.

I think it’s important to re-evaluate goals on a regular basis and figure out if they still align with my priorities. And if some don’t, it’s okay to let go of them! It doesn’t make me a failure. But it is important to be sure that I’m letting them go for the right reasons, not because I’m afraid. I decided to pause my coaching goals because I initially set them for a bad reason (fear of not having enough VO work) and they were taking energy away from other goals I consider a higher priority (writing). I can always unpause these goals in the future, or re-write them as my priorities change.

The purpose of setting and sticking to goals is to help build the life you want for yourself. If you realize partway down the path that you’re moving in the wrong direction, there’s nothing wrong with stopping and changing course.

If you’ve been keeping up with my posts so far, thank you for sticking around! I hope you got some value out of what’s been written so far.

What were some goals you decided to drop and why? Let me know in the comments!

Featured

About Me

Larissa is a professional audiobook narrator, voice over artist, and actor. With her home recording studio in Vancouver, B.C., she is able to spend her time doing what she loves most - becoming a conduit for stories that resonate with us.